Welcome to Merry Go
by Alia Inverse
Summary: Life in Fuschia Town may be peaceful, but that doesn't make it boring. The staff of Merry Go agrees. Modern AU, response to Stelra Etnae's five-prompt challenge in the One Piece Challenges forum. 2# Dream: "You know that place, between sleeping and awake?"
1. Rose

_This fic was born as a response to a challenge issued by Stelra Etnae in her forum: __forum / One-Piece-Challenges / 133165 /__ (without the spaces). You should drop by, it has some very interesting challenges! ^^_

_Well, on with it!_

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**Rose**

"_Of course, an ordinary passerby would think my rose looked just like you."_

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By most accounts Fuschia Town was a completely unremarkable place, barely known as a dormitory town for the capital Goa and little else. The inhabitants had never felt any need to build monuments that could be visited while sightseeing, the big fast-food chains had never thought of opening a branch there, there were no big actors or athletes or writers who had been born in Fuschia.

The one thing the town had were inns. Inns, hotels, rental flats. People came and went every day, barely giving any thought at the place they left behind, so caught up they were with their lives, their jobs or their problems.

In one corner of the town, near the thick forest that extended from Fuschia to the Gray Terminal was an old, abandoned inn. It had been a beautiful building at one time, with white walls, red roofs and pebbled entrance, but years of abandonment had turned it into something that seemed to have come out of a horror story.

In front of that run-down house there were two siblings. The elder was a man in his early twenties wearing a bright orange cow-boy hat; the younger was a teen with a small scar under his left eye and brown eyes so dark that they seemed to be black.

Both siblings looked at their inheritance with a calculating look, seizing the weeds several feet tall that hid the gardens and the few remaining glass windows that had turned a sad yellow color.

"This place is falling apart," The elder brother sighed. "Lu, are you sure about this?"

Not bothering to answer that, the younger brother opened the front doors with a sharp tug, smiling as they swung open. Almost like the place was giving him its approval, the single light bulb remaining in the hall lit up, inviting them inside.

Once Monday came, Ace was forced to leave for his job in the capital. He looked a bit suspiciously at his brother, made him promise to call if anything went wrong ("anything at all, doesn't matter what time it is") and, very reluctantly, left him to his own devices.

While no one could accuse Luffy of being the most diligent of workers (or even a proficient one) he was nothing if not motivated. He scrubbed the floors, repainted the walls, removed the weeds, mowed the lawn and fished for bed sheets in the street market.

Eventually, other things began to fall into place.

His brother sent Franky towards the end of the week, a blue haired construction builder from the city, who after claiming how Super lucky they had been to not get the floors collapse over their heads, declared the structure to be safe enough and began rearranging the partitions, replacing the glass panes and repairing the roof and everything that needed fixing by an expert hand. He also fixed Luffy's messes gladly, though the constant trips from Terminal to Fuschia became so frequent that he eventually threatened the owner to occupy a room free of charge if he kept breaking things.

After the tenth destroyed handrail, he never really got around leaving.

The following day, a former classmate of Luffy showed up at the door, weaving a tale that included his last place, five feet tall cockroaches, evil moustached landladies and poor defenseless kittens, and asking if he could please let him stay for a while, he didn't mind working in whatever needed work. Little by little Usopp covered the hallways and the rooms in paintings of the sea and of fantastical creatures and long-nosed adventurers.

Nami came next. For days afterwards no one knew exactly which one had won in the argument that resulted in the orange haired girl's appointment as the chief (sole) accountant, leaving her in charge of the finances of the place, or who had gotten the better part of the deal. Luffy was too much of a free soul to actually care about such things though, and Nami could get good credentials from this, no matter how small the place was, so it worked out.

Three weeks after starting her venture Luffy bumped into a blond cook that had just been sacked from his previous job. It took some negotiation, whining and refused refusals, but in the end he got his chef, who seemed inordinately pleased at living in the same building as Nami. Sanji commandeered the kitchen as his own, kicked out all males present and future from his turf, had Franky replace everything from the sinks ("single bowl, what kind of moron designed this?") to the tiles ("no, I won't have _that_ color in _my_ kitchen") and filled it with all kinds of spices and cooking utensils in some bizarre order that only he could understand.

When the green haired stranger came asking for directions to Shimotsuki (a town about an hour away from Goa… in the completely opposite direction from Fuschia), none knew what to make to him. When they heard about the huge row Zoro had instigated with Helmet-something-or-other, whose father was the owner of the biggest hotel in town, normal people would have classified him as a thug and stayed away from him.

Luffy defended him, punched blondie in the face and gave Zoro one of the rooms in the ground floor as 'security guard' (security against what he didn't say, but the rest let it slide as they were already getting used to his whimsical nature).

Chopper was an unexpected, if welcome surprise. He was a freshman, a medicine student who could not afford the high prices of living in Goa and, desperate for a place to stay in order to prove he could be independent (it had taken him almost running away from home before his adoptive mother, Dr. Kureha, agreed to letting him out of her sight) had accepted to move in permanently and create a small infirmary in his free time in lieu of payment. For now it only had a first-aid kit and a very high amount of bandages, which seemed to vanish as soon as he re-stocked them.

Like Chopper, Robin was not properly a staff member, and it was only a bizarre coincidence that had her moving in before the inn had officially opened. No one knew much about her past, other than the fact that she had moved around the country for several years before settling down on Goa in order to finish her thesis on Poneglyphs and Ancient History. Within a couple of days she had claimed one of the larger living rooms and began the long process of turning it into a decent library. She also got Luffy's permission to reform a room nearby into a study where she could hole herself up to work on her dissertation. In return she was always ready to give a hand, answer some questions or just mother them a bit, so it worked for everyone involved.

Mere days before the 'inauguration' of the latest inn in Fuschia Town, Merry Go got one more addition. He brought with him an old guitar, and examined and tuned the piano that had been decoration the dining room on the ground floor. Soul King Brook (now Simply Brook) had been a well-known pop-star in his time, and quickly fell in love with Merry and her people. He yohoho'ed, made some very bad puns and by dinnertime they all knew he would fit right in.

And finally one day, they were ready to open to business.

The Merry Go was just a small inn of a small town that was not in any way remarkable. But for those people, and some more to come, Merry Go would be the most important of all. Since it was theirs.

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"_Of course, an ordinary passerby would think my rose looked just like you. But my rose, all on her own, is more important than all of you together, since she's the one I've watered. Since she's the one I put under glass, since she's the one I sheltered behind the screen. Since she's the one for whom I killed the caterpillars (except the two or three butterflies). Since she's the one I listened to when she complained, or when she boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing at all. Since she's my rose." _

_The Little Prince― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry_

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A/N.: Well, the prompt for this one-shot was, of course, **'Rose'**. I'm already working on the next, **'Dream'**, but as I won't have Internet for a few days it will take a while before it's out ^^. This one was more about creating the setting than anything else, though I admit that I only have a vague outline for the others. Anyway, thanks for reading!

_Dream: "You know that place, between sleeping and awake?"_


	2. Dream

**Dream**

"_You know that place, between sleeping and awake?"_

* * *

Chopper blinked rapidly to stop the tears from falling.

It was stupid, he knew, to cry over something so simple. It was only an overdue paper, and it wasn't even relevant to the final grade on the subject. And though yes, it had been Luffy's fault for somehow dropping printer ink of all things over it and he was still a bit angry at him for doing so the older boy had apologized and treated him to ice-cream (which, as it involved food, proved how heart-felt the apology truly was). Even the professor had agreed to let him turn it in during tutoring hours, and look over it with the rest.

But to add insult to the injury, the professor had not been in his office when the brunette came back, but had gone to the central hospital where he doubled as a doctor.

Now he was in the hall, lost and dazed by the amount of people and _strangers_ and nurses moving so fast that he felt bad to interrupt one of them to ask for directions.

So he stood there, folder in hand, trying not to cry.

"Get out of the damn way squirt." Someone grumbled just behind him and the poor brunet almost jumped out of his skin.

When he turned, he had to lift his head up and up to find himself in front of one of the most terrifying people he had ever seen. The stranger had flaming red hair flattened by a pair of googles and pale skin that seemed even whiter due to the trickle of blood that was flowing down his temple. Even then, the scowl he was directing at poor Chopper had not lost any of its effectiveness.

Before the freshman could do anything other than stare, a new person appeared, yanking the red-head away from him and towards a wheelchairs he had brought with him.

"Stop moving, Kidd-ya. Or your brain will fall out." The newcomer said with a rather creepy glint on his eyes, as if he was actually hoping that would happen. The sight of the word DEATH tattooed in his knuckles made Chopper shiver a little.

… Wasn't that the tattoo of the brightest student at his college, the Surgeon of Death Law?

The one called Kidd ignored Chopper's discovery as he was busier snarling at the object that was now in front of him.

"I ain't using a f***ing wheelchair! I fell off my bike, I'm not a freaking invalid!"

"Sure. Sit." That said, the politer man took the wheelchair and crashed it hard against the knees of his companion, making him lose his balance and fall onto it.

The red head of course jumped up as soon as he felt himself land on the hated contraption, but as his feet hit the ground he began swaying dangerously. His eyes were a bit unfocused, and suddenly his symptoms became clear.

"You have a concussion?" Chopper found his voice and rushed to his side, forgetting his fear in his need to help a person who was so obviously suffering. "Then you cannot move like that, don't you know you can cause yourself some serious brain damage like that?"

The motorist simply shot him an incredulous look, and Chopper's senior laughed. "See, even the kid knows better. Now, sit before I tie you to the damn chair."

"I'm not a kid." Chopper mumbled. "I'm eighteen!"

"Hm." Law nodded absently, wrestling Kidd into the chair once again. Deepening his scowl Kidd stopped struggling, probably realizing that concussion or not, Law was likely to knock him unconscious and be done with it. "Thanks for the help."

"Wait!" The brunet said, gathering his courage. "Can you help me with something?"

A few minutes later Chopper was skipping happily along the hallway, having successfully completed his mission. Law had given him directions easily (he did not seem like a bad guy once you got around his aloof exterior) and Dr. Hogback hadn't reprimanded him for being late either, so all in all the brunet considered his afternoon to have been a success.

He was about to take the elevator when he glimpsed a familiar shade of yellow turning a corner. Had Luffy followed him? It seemed like something he would do and probably now he was about to turn around to try and scare him. Smiling, he quickened his pace to follow him and he arrived just in time to see him disappear into one of the individual rooms of the sixth floor.

Frowning a little, Chopper tiptoed to the white door. A small plaque signaled that this was room 632. Was Luffy sick and he hadn't told anybody? Did he need any special attention? What if he was dying? What if the others blamed him for not having seen that their landlord had a chronically grave and potentially lethal illness?!

The teen had nearly worked himself into hysterics when his common sense came back, and he realized that the most logical reason for Luffy being in the hospital was that he was actually visiting someone else.

He could deal with that.

Now that he thought about it, he barely knew anything about Luffy. He had heard Franky say that he had a brother, but that was about it. Did he have friends in the city? Other family? Surely he must. Then who was behind that door?

He desperately wanted to open it and peek inside, but he didn't dare. Chopper was pretty sure that the other teen would not be angry with him, since he never seemed to get angry, but still it looking inside when his friend didn't even know he was being watched felt like a betrayal.

The decision was taken for him when the door opened without warning, and suddenly he found himself face to face with the person that was in his thoughts; he squeaked and tried to hide, but his friend broke into a grin, seemingly unbothered by his presence.

"Oh, you really are here, Sabo was right!"

There was a moment of silence as Chopper tried to calm his nerves, but even then, he didn't seem to be able to form coherent words. In the end, the other boy had to almost physically drag him inside before he snapped out of his daze and finally allowed himself to look around curiously.

Lying on the bed was a man in his early twenties with blond, curly hair. His arms and part of his face were badly disfigured by what were clearly burn scars, and he was asleep… No, that wasn't right. Chopper came closer, noticing the machine beeping in one corner of the room and the IV's connected to his body. He wasn't asleep, but he wasn't awake either.

"Is he… in a comma?"

"That's what the doctors say."

Seeing him hesitate once again, Luffy laughed.

"Come closer, he's not gonna bite. Well, once he did bite me, but I think he was aiming for Ace's chocolate bar. And then he didn't share, meanie." He pouted.

"Sabo, this is Chopper. He is one of the people living with me in the old inn I've been telling you about, and he is really cool! Just the other day Nami was about to hit me and he did something weird with his eyes that made her blush and leave me alone! I wish I could do that too, but she only gets angrier when I try."

For the next half an hour Luffy blabbered on about anything and everything, intercalating the new dish Sanji was trying to create yesterday with the tree house he and his brothers built behind Dadan's some ten years ago as the blond lied there without making any signal that he was even aware of their presence.

Chopper fidgeted in his seat, uncomfortable. He knew, of course, of the theory that said that comatose people could still be somewhat aware of the world around them. But it was one thing to know of it, and other to see someone so set on believing it, to the point where he carried his one-sided conversation as if he could truly communicate with the allied one.

Maybe he should say something? But what good would that do, wasn't it better to maintain the illusion for as long as it lasted?

"What's wrong?" Luffy interrupted his tirade on a frankly terrifying memory of his grandfather to blink at his friend. "Are you hungry?"

Chopper wanted to ask. He wanted to know why this Sabo was comatose in a hospital bed, what had happened and how much time had Luffy spent talking without expecting an answer. He got as far as to open his mouth to ask, but somewhere between his brain and his mouth the words changed.

"Did you truly build a tree house?"

When his landlord grinned, Chopper could have sworn that he heard someone laughing at the border of his conscience, but the feeling was gone as soon as it came.

Maybe he had only imagined it.

But maybe it did not matter either way. Because sleeping or awake, the third person in the room was still there, and could still communicate through the memories he left behind and the hope of a new day.

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"_You know that place between sleeping and awake, that place where you can still remember dreaming? That's where I'll always think of you."  
_Peter Pan― J.M. Barrie

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Thank you for reading, the favs and follows! This is the second prompt, **'Dream'.** Next is **'Sorry'**, and in the following two prompts I might expand a little on what has been hinted on this chapter. I really didn't have much planned beyond this point though ^^.


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